Car construction



T. F. SHANAHAN.

CAR CONSTRUCTION.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 30, I919.

. w/L n 4 m M R d W m w\ 1 m5 M WI 5 H m m-\ m m m w m m M P N u m wx MM i k w W 9 w 5 r k 3 6 0O: 1

T. F. SHANAHAN.

CAR CONSTRUCTION.

APPLICATION FILED JUHE30. 1919.

1,363,059. Patented Dec. 21, 1920.

2 SHEETSSHEET 2- IN VEN TOR. 790/7705 FS/ na/Idn ATTORNEY.

Il I BY UNITED STATES PATENT OFFIE.

THOMAS F. SHANAHAN, OF JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY.

GAR CONSTRUCTION.

' Application filed June so,

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, THOMAS F. SIrAnA- HAN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Jersey City, in the county of Hudson and State of New Jersey, have invented new and useful Improvements in Car Construction, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in car construction and is particularly adapted for use in connection with what are generally known as gondola cars commonly used in the shipment ofcoal and the like.

The principal object of the present invention is to provide a gondola car having side doors which may be selectively opened and closed at the desire of the user.

As another object the invention contemplates the provision of a novel means for controlling the raising and lowermg movements of the doors from the ends of the cars.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a car having the doors arranged to be operated with a minimum amount of waste space and the fewest number of operating or moving parts.

With these and other objects in view as will become apparent as a description proceeds, the invention consists in the novel construction, combination and arrangement of parts as will be fully set forth in the following specification, claimed and illustrated 1n the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure l is a side view of a car constructed in accordance with this invention.

Fig. 2 is an end view of Fig.

Fig. 3 is a top plan view of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary horizontal sectional view through one of the doors illustrating one set of operating gears arranged between two of the doors.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view on line 5-5 of Fig. 4 and Fig. 6 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view on line 6-6 of Fig. 5.

Referring to the drawings in detail the numeral 1 designates the bottom of a car which is mounted on the usual trucks 2 which in turn are on the track 3. The car is braced in the usual manner and is provided at spaced intervals with posts 4 along the side edges of the bottom. The posts 4 are provided with vertical grooves 5 in which the panels or doors 6 are slidably mounted and arranged alternately between the posts Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 21, 1920.

1919. Serial No. 307,503.

are the guide posts 7. These guide posts are provided with grooves for the accommodation of the lateral edges of panels or doors 6 as will be clearly seen upon reference to F l. The posts 7 in addition to being recessed to receive the lateral edges of the panels or doors are provided with outwardly extending tongues 8 the upper ends of which are cut away in the manner illustrated in F 6 to form a chamber to accommodate the worms 9 and 10. These worms are mounted on shafts 11 and 12 respectively and as illustrated in Fig. 6 the shaft 11 is provided with a bevel pinion 13 while the extreme lower end of the shaft 12 is provided with a bevel pinion 14C. The doors or panels 6 are provided with vertically extending rack bars 15 and it will thus be seen that, when the worms 9 and 10 are rotated, the doors will be moved either to elevating or lowering position and even though the driving power be relieved from the worms the doors will remain elevated until lowered by the user. It will thus be evident that accidental injury through carelessness or the accidental lowering of a door will be avoided.

In order to selectively operate the bevel pinions and worms, a shaft 16 is rotatably mounted in a suitable bearing 17 beneath the guard flanges 18 arranged at the sides of the car and secured to said shaft is a double bevel gear 19 which, when the shaft is shifted longitudinally, is brought into mesh with either the gear 13 or the gear 14. The shaft is continued to the end of the car and is provided with a removable crank 20 by which it may be readily rotated.

As shown in the drawings there are provided eight doors to each side of the car. It is therefore desirable that four shafts on each side of the car he provided in order to selectively operate the doors. It will be understood that these shafts may be arranged in pairs and that certain of said shafts will necessarily be longer than certain others so as to reach the doors located farthest toward the center of the car.

From the foregoing it will be seen that the gear 19, upon being shifted forwardly, will mesh with the pinion l3, and upon rotation of the shaft 16, the worm 9 will be rotated thus elevating the door to which the worm 9 is connected. After the aforementioned door has been manipulated to suit the operator, it is obvious that by shifting the shaft 16 rearwardly the pinion 19 will mesh with the pinion 14L thus manipulating the shaft 12 and worm 10 upon rotation of the shaft 16 so that the door operated by the worm 10 may be movedto the desired position. 7

WVhile in the foregoing has been shown and described the preferred form of this invention it is to be understood that certain minor changes of construction, combination and arrangement of parts may be resorted to without departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention as claimed.

What is claimed as new is:

1. In a device of the class described, a railway car having vertically movable doors in its side walls, rack bars on the doors, worms meshing with the rack bars, and a manipulative member operable to select and operate the worm to elevate and lower each of a plurality of said doors.

2. In a device of the class described, a railway car body having a plurality of vertically slidabledoors in its side walls, rack bars carried by the doors, worms meshed with the rack bars, and a plurality of manipulative members each operable to select and operate each of a plurality of the worms from the ends of the car. 7

3. In a device of the class described, a

rotate the shafts to elevate and lower the doors.

at. In a device of the class described a railway car body comprising a plurality of vertically extending posts having grooves therein, doors slidable in the grooves, rack bars carried by the doors, worms meshing with the rack bars, shafts for supporting the worms and rotating the same, bevel pinions at the lower ends of the shafts, shafts slidably mounted on the under side of the car and adapted to be rotated from the ends of the car, and compound bevel pinions on the last named shafts adapted to be meshed with the pinions on the first named shafts to selectively operate the doors.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

THOMAS F. SHANAHAN. 

